MANILA-Share prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange went against unenthusiastic sentiments in most Asian markets Friday and went on to advance for the third consecutive day. The peso, however, was marginally weaker on

The main index PSEi moved up by 16.68 points or nearly 0.4 percent to close at 4,251.64 points, aided by strong gains in the mining and oil section (up by 360.19 points or 2.4 percent).

The broader All Share Index, however, shaved 5.06 points to close at 3,084.74.

Total volume for the day came to 2.61 million shares, up by 137 percent from the previous day's, with aggregate value reaching 4.64 billion pesos (US$107 million), up by 12 percent on the day.

There were more advancers than decliners, 77 to 50, with another 40 unchanged from their previous closings.

There was also more foreign buying of Philippine equities at close to 9.2 billion pesos against foreign selling of 8.84 billion pesos.

Friday's performance brought the PSEi higher by 23.65 points nearly 0.6 percent against the closing mark at the start of the week. Total value traded for the week amounted to 18.13 billion pesos, down from the previous week's 38.2 billion pesos that was bolstered by heavy trading on a couple of holding companies led by Alliance Global.

The heavy turnover Friday on the mining board was led by Lepanto Consolidated, whose "A" class shares chalked up 218.8 million pesos worth of trades. Lepanto-A's closing price today of 0.58 peso was up by 9.4 percent from the closing the day before.

Another heavily traded mining stock Friday, Semirara Mining, added 171.58 million pesos for the day's second biggest value traded in the mining section. Semirara's closing price on Friday of 212 pesos was lower by 1.5 percent from the day before, for its fourth consecutive drop in the just ended week.

Meanwhile, the peso closed at 43.25 against the US dollar Friday on the Philippine Dealing System, a change of 0.02 of a peso compared to 43.23 the day before.

Trading turnover reached $699.35 million, down from $872.04 million the previous day.

-J. Galang